Not just a Modi-era problem: Nehru’s files reveal deep-rooted legacy of illegal migration from Punjab

People from Punjab and Haryana venturing abroad illegally is not a new phenomenon. Decades ago, India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had expressed concern over Punjabis travelling overseas using forged passports.

During Prime Minister Modi’s tenure, deportations have occurred mainly from the United States. But during Nehru’s time, the destinations were Britain and Italy.

In a note to the then Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt on June 10, 1959, Nehru wrote, “It appears that this has been a long-standing practice in which quite a number of people are involved, though it is not very easy to get formal proof. As the people involved occupy some kind of status in society, this makes it even more difficult to deal with the matter.” He further observed, “As far as I know, most of these passport‑fraud cases originate from Punjab, particularly the Jalandhar division. I also understand that one travel agency in Delhi, Iyer & Sons, or some of its employees, are frequently implicated.”

He instructed, “I want our passport issuing offices to be particularly careful in these matters coming from the Jullundur Division…”

The note has been part of the 35,000 documents uploaded by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund on November 14. According to the Fund, the documents consist of his correspondence, speeches, interviews, administrative notes on files, diary entries, and even doodles — a rich archive offering Nehru’s concerns, including this little-known issue of forged passports mainly from Punjab.

By January 1960, the problem had begun making headlines. Five Indians were detained while trying to enter Britain on forged passports and were sent back to Zurich at the expense of the carriers. When the matter surfaced in the Rajya Sabha, questions were raised about how many such cases existed and whether the Centre had investigated. Then Deputy Minister of External Affairs, Lakshmi Menon, confirmed that some individuals had entered the UK on forged passports, but noted that it was for the British Government to decide the course of action.

In reply to a supplementary question, Nehru elaborated, “It’s an old matter which has troubled us as well as the countries they go to. Airport security has been tightened, and a large number have been caught. They used to take chartered planes; this has been stopped. We were caught unawares when these people boarded ships from Cochin, which we had not considered. Ships were chartered and several managed to get out through Cochin. Now adequate arrangements have been made at Cochin. The question is what to do about those who have already reached there. Some have returned. The rest can be brought back only if they are caught; but they blend into the population.”

He added, “This appears to us to be a fairly widespread business, having its main bases in Punjab and Delhi, and in one or two other places.”

Nehru also shared a vivid account of how international authorities responded to the situation, “When the first lot reached England, they were stopped and the UK Government sent them back at their expense. The normal rule is that if a carrier takes any person who is not authorised to travel, it is the carrier that has to bring the person back, whether it is a steamship company or air company or anything…The difficulty arose in Italy because the Italian Government refused to pay that and the ships had already landed them and gone away. We did not think it right for us to take the liability. It will be a bad precedent and so we did not. And for some time, these people were kept in camps by the Italian Government at some place in Italy. After some time, the Italian Government told them that they could go away if they wanted to. Some of them left and they went to England. They were apprehended – some of them – in Berne and other places. Ultimately we decided to repatriate them at our expense on some kind of an assurance or undertaking given by them that they will pay that money.”

Later that year, on September 1, 1960, the issue returned to the Rajya Sabha. Lakshmi Menon, responding on forged passports, said that those involved “hail mostly from Jullundur and Hoshiarpur districts in Punjab, with the exception of two, who belong to Delhi and Cochin.”

The same day, in reply to a supplementary question, Nehru added a pointed reflection: “There is no doubt that the travel agents were certainly responsible but to imagine that thousands of persons — innocent victims — without knowing what would happen gladly paid large sums of money is rather difficult to conceive. They are all guilty, the travel agents more so. But in view of all this, when I was in London, some of their representatives came to see me. I said that I was prepared to have the case of everyone there examined not from the point of view of criminal steps being taken — that is a different matter — but from a humanitarian point of view. All these people were without any papers, stateless almost. So, I said that I would be prepared to have all these cases examined there by the High Commission to see what we could do possibly in the matter.”

In a letter to then Punjab CM Partap Singh Kairon on forged passports, Nehru, on November 21, 1959, had said, “It appeared that most of these people came from the Punjab and chiefly from Jullundur Division…Now we have had a major eruption and hundreds of people have gone by chartered ships to Europe and England. We have had and are still having a great deal of trouble with the Governments of the United Kingdom, France and Italy, on this score… Previously whole aeroplanes were chartered for this purpose and I think that some of the air companies encouraged this business because they made money out of it…Anyhow, there are hundreds of these people held up in Rome, London and elsewhere, and we are having very acrimonious correspondence with the Italian authorities because we refused to pay for their return to India.”

He further added, “An inference is that some policemen are themselves involved in this conspiracy. They are either serving in Punjab or in Delhi.”

A note from former Deputy High Commissioner, London, M Azim Husain to Nehru, dated May 12, 1960, informed that “since 1955, a very large number of Indians have come to this country (Britain) on forged or irregular passports, contravening passport and other regulations.” He added that the UK Government didn’t throw them out because of Commonwealth citizenship and “they have settled down in this country as workers in factories or peddlers.”

He further said, “I have been told by representatives of the Workers’ Association in Birmingham, Glasgow, etc, that no less than 70 to 80 per cent of the immigrants hold forged passports.” He said that the High Commission had recently helped in sending back 52 Indians.